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MIDDLESBROUGH v CHARLTON ATHLETIC, Premier League, 28th August 2005
Schwarzer, Reiziger, Ehiogu, Southgate, Queudrue, Morrison, Parlour, Boateng, Downing, Yakubu, Viduka
Jones, Pogatetz, Doriva, Mendieta, Maccarone
It must have been a sort of gallows humour that made me stay back in the concourse and watch the Charlton goals on the TV. And there was the biggest irony of the lot.
I winced as the lowlights of the horror show that we had just endured was repeated on the small screen and along with the small group who stayed the distance, I recoiled as Boro were made to look worst than poor by a team who are good but are certainly nowhere near great.
There was little talk as first one, then two then three nails were hammered into Boro's coffin and I attribute that to the state of disbelief that we all found ourselves in.
The newsfeed crawled across the bottom of the screen as Skippy's net rippled...
"Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren has claimed that he has the credentials to be the next England manager..."
And there is the reason for Sunday's shocking performance. He really couldn't have picked a worst moment to make that statement.
Coming just a few short hours before an important match, it is no surprise that the team carried an air of 'can't be botheredness'. How can a team be motivated when the manager publicly states that he has his eye on a bigger job?
Analysts have speculated intensely on the reasons for Sunday's no-show and McClaren had his own theories as he lambasted his side on camera.
"They didn't perform..." "They were poor..." "The crowd were right to boo them..."
I put heavy emphasis on the words they and them. How about taking the responsibility yourself Steve? After all, it was you who put the players in that frame of mind.
A top flight manager who distances himself from his team in that fashion will always find it hard to win back the respect that he should be commanding on a day to day basis.
I noticed several players turning their back on the boss as he yelled out orders to them on Sunday and I dread to think what they are now saying behind his back.
Whatever private words the situation demands, the public sentiments have to be crafted carefully and they weren't in this case. In fact, the situation has been dramatically compounded by the leader shifting the blame onto his charges when he should be taking the responsibility himself, in public at least.
We have always supported Steve McClaren on this website and have always gone against the grain when he has been most under fire but this time round, there is nothing good that can be said at all.
Two defeats out of four this season and the blame for both rests squarely on Steve McClaren's shoulders. We're all allowed mistakes but not too big and not frequent, if you don't mind.
We can't blame any one of the players for Sunday. They have clearly lost all respect for SMc and it will now take a miracle for him to win that back.
He will always go down in history as the man who won us our first trophy and in my mind at least, he's definitely earned his place in the Boro hall of fame.
But perhaps the end of the road is now in sight?
A manager who states on the morning of a big game that he doesn't really want to be here any more, and then distances himself from the team that he de-motivated is in for a long, hard winter.
And as the replay of the third goal flashed across the screen, the news ticker displayed Saturday's results...
Rangers 0 Hibernian 3. Do I need to elaborate on that?
Normal ComeOnBoro.com match reporting will resume for the Arsenal match. It could be a busy afternoon.
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